A hospital moved imaging files into the coldest Cloud Storage class last year. An auditor now needs three of those files within the next half hour for a review. Which statement describes the situation correctly?
Show answer and explanation
Answer: D
Cloud Storage Archive objects are online. They can be read with ordinary requests and do not need a restore job, so the auditor can access the files within moments of asking. The costs are the per-GiB retrieval charge and the 365-day minimum storage duration, which matter for billing but not for availability. Lifecycle rules change storage class over time rather than on demand.
Why the other options are wrong
- A. Restore-and-rehydrate workflows belong to some other providers' archive tiers; Cloud Storage Archive objects do not need a restore job before they can be read.
- B. Lifecycle rules run on age or condition checks and change storage class over time, so they cannot make specific archived files readable within half an hour.
- C. Copying the files into Standard storage adds time and cost that are unnecessary, since Archive objects are already readable and the copy would not speed up the review.